Three Phase Induction Motors

Introduction
The three-phase induction motors are the most widely used electric motors in industry. They run at essentially constant speed from no-load to full-load. However, the speed is frequency dependent and consequently these motors are not easily adapted to speed control. We usually prefer d.c. motors when large speed variations are required. Nevertheless, the 3-phase induction motors are simple, rugged, low-priced, easy to maintain and can be manufactured with characteristics to suit most industrial requirements. In this chapter, we shall focus our attention on the general principles of 3-phase induction motors.

8.1 Three-Phase Induction Motor

Like any electric motor, a 3-phase induction motor has a stator and a rotor. The stator carries a 3-phase winding (called stator winding) while the rotor carries a short-circuited winding (called rotor winding). Only the stator winding is fed from 3-phase supply. The rotor winding derives its voltage and power from the externally energized stator winding through electromagnetic induction and hence the name. The induction motor may be considered to be a transformer with a rotating secondary and it can, therefore, be described as a transformertype a.c. machine in which electrical energy is converted into mechanical energy.

Advantages
(i) It has simple and rugged construction. (ii) It is relatively cheap. (iii) It requires little maintenance. (iv) It has high efficiency and reasonably good power factor. (v) It has self starting torque.

Disadvantages
(i) It is essentially a constant speed motor and its speed cannot be changed easily. (ii) Its starting torque is inferior to d.c. shunt motor. 182

Fig.(8.1)

8.2 Construction
A 3-phase induction motor has two main parts (i) stator and (ii) rotor. The rotor is separated from the stator by a small air-gap which ranges from 0.4 mm to 4 mm, depending on the power of the motor.

1. Stator
It consists of a steel frame which encloses a hollow, cylindrical core made up of thin laminations of silicon steel to reduce hysteresis and eddy current losses. A number of evenly spaced slots are provided on the inner periphery of the laminations [See Fig. (8.1)]. The insulated connected to form a balanced 3-phase star or delta connected circuit. The 3-phase stator winding is wound for a definite number of poles as per requirement of speed. Greater the number of poles, lesser is the speed of the motor and vice-versa. When 3-phase supply is given to the stator winding, a rotating magnetic field (See Sec. 8.3) of constant magnitude is produced. This rotating field induces currents in the rotor by electromagnetic induction.

2. Rotor
The rotor, mounted on a shaft, is a hollow laminated core having slots on its outer periphery. The winding placed in these slots (called rotor winding) may be one of the following two types: (i) Squirrel cage type (ii) Wound type (i) Squirrel cage rotor. It consists of a laminated cylindrical core having parallel slots on its outer periphery. One copper or aluminum bar is placed in each slot. All these bars are joined at each end by metal rings called end rings [See Fig. (8.2)]. This forms a permanently short-circuited winding which is indestructible. The entire construction (bars and end rings) resembles a squirrel cage and hence the name. The rotor is not connected electrically to the supply but has current induced in it by transformer action from the stator. Those induction motors which employ squirrel cage rotor are called squirrel cage induction motors. Most of 3-phase induction motors use squirrel cage rotor as it has a remarkably simple and robust construction enabling it to operate in the most adverse circumstances. However, it suffers from the disadvantage of a low starting torque. It is because the rotor bars are permanently short-circuited and it is not possible to add any external resistance to the rotor circuit to have a large starting torque. 183 Fig.(8.2) Fig.(8.3) (ii) Wound rotor. It consists of a laminated cylindrical core and carries a 3phase winding, similar to the one on the stator [See Fig. (8.3)]. The rotor winding is uniformly distributed in the slots and is usually star-connected. The open ends of the rotor winding are brought out and joined to three insulated slip rings mounted on the rotor shaft with one brush resting on each slip ring. The three brushes are connected to a 3-phase star-connected rheostat as shown in Fig. (8.4). At starting, the external resistances are included in the rotor circuit to give a large starting torque. These resistances are gradually reduced to zero as the motor runs up to speed. Fig.(8.4)

The external resistances are used during starting period only. When the motor attains normal speed, the three brushes are short-circuited so that the wound rotor runs like a squirrel cage rotor.

8.5 Principle of Operation Consider a portion of 3-phase induction motor as shown in Fig. (8.13). The operation of the motor can be explained as under: (i) When 3-phase stator winding is energized from a 3-phase supply, a rotating magnetic field is set up which rotates round the stator at synchronous speed Ns (= 120 f/P). (ii) The rotating field passes through the air gap and cuts the rotor conductors, which as yet, are stationary. Due to the relative speed between the rotating flux and the stationary rotor, e.m.f.s are induced in the rotor conductors. Since the rotor circuit is short-circuited, currents start flowing in the rotor conductors. (iii) The current-carrying rotor conductors are placed in the magnetic fieldproduced by the stator. Consequently, mechanical force acts on the rotor conductors. The sum of the mechanical forces on all the rotor conductors produces a torque which tends to move the rotor in the same direction as the rotating field. (iv) The fact that rotor is urged to follow the stator field (i.e., rotor moves in the direction of stator field) can be explained by Lenzs law. According to this law, the direction of rotor currents will be such that they tend to oppose the cause producing them. Now, the cause producing the rotor currents is the relative speed between the rotating field and the stationary rotor conductors. Hence to reduce this relative speed, the rotor starts running in the same direction as that of stator field and tries to catch it.

Slip
We have seen above that rotor rapidly accelerates in the direction of rotating field. In practice, the rotor can never reach the speed of stator flux. If it did, there would be no relative speed between the stator field and rotor conductors, no induced rotor currents and, therefore, no torque to drive the rotor. The friction and windage would immediately cause the rotor to slow down. Hence, the rotor speed (N) is always less than the suitor field speed (Ns). This difference in speed depends upon load on the motor. The difference between the synchronous speed Ns of the rotating stator field and the actual rotor speed N is called slip. It is usually expressed as a percentage of synchronous speed i.e., % age slip= (i) The quantity Ns -N is sometimes called slip speed. (ii) When the rotor is stationary (i.e., N = 0), slip, s = 1 or 100 %. (iii) In an induction motor, the change in slip from no-load to full-load is hardly 0.1% to 3% so that it is essentially a constant-speed motor.

Torque-Slip Characteristics
The motor torque under running conditions is given by

If a curve is drawn between the torque and slip for a particular value of rotor resistance R2, the graph thus obtained is called torque-slip characteristic. Fig. shows a family of torque-slip characteristics for a slip-range from s = 0 to s = 1 for various values of rotor resistance. The following points may be noted carefully: (i) At s = 0, T = 0 so that torque-slip curve starts from the origin. (ii) At normal speed, slip is small so that s X2 is negligible as compared to R2. \ T s /R2 s ... as R2 is constant Hence torque slip curve is a straight line from zero slip to a slip that corresponds to full-load. (iii) As slip increases beyond full-load slip, the torque increases and becomes maximum at s = R2/X2. This maximum torque in an induction motor is called pull-out torque or break-down torque. Its value is at least twice the full-load value when the motor is operated at rated voltage and frequency.

Induction Motor and Transformer Compared

An induction motor may be considered to be a transformer with a rotating short circuited secondary. The stator winding corresponds to transformer primary and Rotor winding to transformer secondary. However, the following differences between the two are worth noting: (i) Unlike a transformer, the magnetic circuit of a 3-phase induction motor has an air gap. Therefore, the magnetizing current in a 3-phase induction motor is much larger than that of the transformer. For example, in an induction motor, it may be as high as 30-50 % of rated current whereas it is only 15% of rated current in a transformer. (ii) In an induction motor, there is an air gap and the stator and rotor windings are distributed along the periphery of the air gap rather than concentrated on a core as in a transformer. Therefore, the leakage reactances of stator and rotor windings are quite large compared to that of a transformer.

(iii) In an induction motor, the inputs to the stator and rotor are electrical but the output from the rotor is mechanical. However, in a transformer, input as well as output is electrical. (iv) The main difference between the induction motor and transformer lies in the fact that the rotor voltage and its frequency are both proportional to slip s. If f is the stator frequency, E2 is the per phase rotor e.m.f. at standstill and X2 is the standstill rotor reactance/phase, then at any slip s, these values are: Rotor e.m.f./phase, E'2 = s E2 Rotor reactance/phase, X'2 = sX2 Rotor frequency, f' = sf

Speed Control of 3-Phase Induction Motors

Squirrel cage motors
The speed of a squirrel cage motor is changed by changing the number of stator poles. Only two or four speeds are possible by this method. Two-speed motor has one stator winding that may be switched through suitable control equipment to provide two speeds, one of which is half of the other. For instance, the winding may be connected for either 4 or 8 poles, giving synchronous speeds of 1500 and 750 r.p.m. Four-speed motors are equipped with two separate stator windings each of which provides two speeds. The disadvantages of this method are: (i) It is not possible to obtain gradual continuous speed control. (ii) Because of the complications in the design and switching of the interconnections of the stator winding, this method can provide a maximum of four different synchronous speeds for any one motor. Wound rotor motors The speed of wound rotor motors is changed by changing the motor slip. This can be achieved by; (i) varying the stator line voltage (ii) varying the resistance of the rotor circuit (iii) inserting and varying a foreign voltage in the rotor circuit
Starters for Poly Phase Induction Motors
If motor is started with full voltage, the starting torque is good but very large currents, of the order of 5-7 times the full-load current flow which causes objectionable voltage drop in the power supply lines and hence undesirable dip in the supply line voltage. Consequently, the operation of other equipment connected to the same supply line is affected considerably. If the motor is started with reduced voltage, there is no problem of high currents but it produces an objectionable reduction in the starting torque, on account of the fact that motor torque is proportional to the square of the applied voltage. Methods of Starting Squirrel Cage I.M There are basic four methods of starting the squirrel cage induction motor using

(a) Direct online starters (b) Auto-transformer Starters (c) Star-Delta Starters

Speed control methods